


another point of view

by Riverdaughter



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Anakin Skywalker Doesn't Turn to the Dark Side, Anakin Skywalker Needs a Hug, Anakin Skywalker is a human lightening rod, Clone Confusion, Clone Wars characterization, Darth Vader Redemption, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Hurt/very little comfort, Palpatine is still evil though, a certain point of view is kind of true here, because Leia is a Skywalker in this universe, because he really does, it’s darkest before the dawn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:40:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23306194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riverdaughter/pseuds/Riverdaughter
Summary: In which a certain point of view is actually more true than Obi-Wan knows. But Luke's father is still dead... right?
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 83
Kudos: 140





	1. In which Sheev has an idea...

**Author's Note:**

> So I finally got around to watching Clone Wars and now I really wish the prequels had a lot more Clone Wars style dialog. I've gone from watching those movies when I was younger and having zero clue what was going on to this... Seriously, I had no interest in Star Wars for the longest time and the first time I watched ROTS I had no idea Anakin was going to end up as Vader. How times have changed. 
> 
> But really I think that's why I like AUs so much...I never thought it was inevitable that he would Fall. And frankly, there is a lot of prequel stuff that I like, (Anakin's faces!!!) and Clone Wars really enhanced them in my opinion. Especially since it made me look past the more cringy writing and just appreciate the story.

Tipoca City,  
Kamino 

The boy is stubborn, Sidious concedes that point. He even understands the tenacity that allowed the gifted slave boy to reach adulthood and the troubled padawan to become the brilliant albeit reckless general that he is. He is still a boy though barely twenty-two, Sidious snorts, and the Jedi called his people brutes. 

The stubbornness could help someday but currently it is snagging up his plans. Sidious has always been a patient man, but he is not going to spend another decade trying to pound treachery into the low-born brat’s durasteel skull. And so, he has devised another way, so elegant in its simplicity he wonders why he had not thought of it sooner.

If you are not with me, you are against me he thinks as he looks down at the empty shell before him. It is a masterful copy. Of course, he expects no less of the Kaminoans. It remains to be seen if the abilities for which he coveted the original have been duplicated as well; playing with DNA is easy, cheating the force is quite another matter altogether. 

Training and of course memories will have to added. It will be so deliciously ironic he decides, this Anakin Skywalker is not the husband of that frustrating senator nor the father of her children and yet Sidious will see him sell his soul to save her.

Sidious enjoys irony.

Of course, the original will have to be dealt with before he can be replaced. Another moment to anticipate he decides, it will be a relief to lay aside the kindly façade he has been forced to wear all these years and deal with brat on his terms. Forget relief, with the boy’s power balanced by his clone Palpatine needn’t bother about the ridiculous prophecy. And if he can convince Anakin’s friends that he has Fallen what delicious confusion and despair the lot of them could spend their last minutes wallowing in. 

Sidious has many years of amusement to look forward to.

The final plan is simple, Anakin Skywalker is not easily surprised nor easily taken but it can be done and it helps that he trusts his men as some jedi never will.


	2. In which one General Skywalker runs into trouble...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Umm...exactly what it says in the title.

Unexplored Jungle, Rishi  
Outer Rim  
4 months later

Anakin’s day has not gone well. The Separatist forces have as usual managed to pick a planet with absolutely atrocious weather. Even when it is not raining incessantly the air is hot and thick with humidity. Anakin is already loathing every step he takes outside their hasty shelters. 

He keeps seeing Ashoka out of the corner of his eye because his ridiculous brain is refusing to believe that she is really gone. Done with the order, done with the war and done with Anakin himself. Not that he blames her, he still feels angry just thinking of what the Council had exposed her to and well he’s about done with this war too. If it weren’t for his men and Obi-Wan he would have long ago run off to Naboo with Padme.

He’s so very tired of fighting. 

But of course, he can’t leave the war, Naboo wouldn’t be safe without the GAR protecting it here in the Outer Rim and the idea of Padme abandoning her duties in the Senate to run away with her husband is a fever dream.

Anakin is still feeling the tendril of fear and anger and (he hates that he feels this way) betrayal that is always stirred out when he remembers that Ashoka is gone. He barely notices when Rex taps him on the shoulder and so he pushes away the feeling of danger that the Force is sending him and tries to pay attention to what the good captain is warning him about.

Rex thinks that they should run another reconnaissance mission, one of the scouts thought they saw something a few vine-tangled mud hills away and Rex thinks that perhaps Anakin should investigate with that sixth sense that comes so naturally to him. The feeling of danger is back and more insistent than ever so Anakin agrees and invites Rex to come with. Rex is stiff and seems tense, perhaps some time away from the camp will do him good. 

It isn’t until they are a mile out that Anakin feels another harsh snap of warning in his head and this time it too late. His men step out of the trees, blasters trained on him rather than on seppies. He turns to Rex for an explanation or perhaps to convince him that he is hallucinating. He really wishes that he was hallucinating because when he turns Rex has a blaster leveled at his head and his eyes are blank and emotionless. 

He has one chance, a quick jab at Rex’s legs brings him down and Anakin gathers the Force and springs into the air batting blaster shots up and away from his men. He has no idea what is going on, but something is clearly wrong with the 501st, he can feel the distortion in their minds no that he is looking for it.  
Something is controlling them, and he hates it. 

Perhaps if he had understood the warning a little earlier or if he hadn’t been so determinedly on defense rather than the offense he favored, perhaps if he hadn’t been quite so tired or the ground had been less slippery he might have had a chance.

Anakin knows that it is over once the first shot clips his leg, but Anakin had lasted nine years as a slave and ten as Obi-Wan’s padawan not to mention nearly three as Padme Amidala’s husband. He is nothing if not stubborn. Another shot catches his saber arm as he stumbles and it goes numb to his collarbone. He has a split-second to contemplate the unpleasant possibilities of someone wanting him alive before he catches the saber in his mechanical hand and goes down on one knee.  
Now that he knows that they aren’t shooting to kill he can return fire with a clear conscience. He can’t stand and his flesh arm is worse than useless but there is a faint chance that they can all walk away from this. If he can just stun enough of them and then find Obi-Wan they can figure out what is wrong and…

Anakin barely feels the tingle of the blast before he falls lifelessly onto the muddy ground. Behind him, Rex holsters his blaster and reaches down to turn off the lightsaber as it rolls away from his general’s grasp. 

Far away in Coruscant the Chancellor of the Galactic Republic receives a call he has been waiting for. 

“Operation Broken Sky complete”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I am trying to stick to canon-ish timelines and characterization (Clone Wars canon mostly, because I feel like it has better dialog in general and it spend so much more time on characters the movies gloss over). Rishi is a jungle/humid planet with one moon that was involved in the Clone Wars from what I have researched. I believe it's also quite close to Kamino...maybe? I've looked at several Star Wars maps and Kamino is mysterious absent (it's like someone deleted it or something).
> 
> But this whole story is AU so not everything fits neatly into the established canon. 
> 
> Also forgot to say this earlier but obviously I don't make any claim to Star Wars, if I did Ashoka wouldn't have left, Anakin and Padme would have like three sets of twins, Obi-Wan and Satine would be married (and there would be little Kenobis playing with little Skywalkers) and the Clones would be off freeing slaves under rebel leaders Skywalker and Amidala...


	3. In which most things go according to plan...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things go according to Sheev's plans.  
> Anakin's plans...not so much. Which is hardly surprising since Anakin tends towards not planning at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is mostly from Sheev/Sidious' point of view, and if ever there was an untrustworthy narrator he is definitely it. 
> 
> I think CS Lewis once said of writing the Screwtape Letters, that it was disturbing to continuously write from the perspective of a devil and Sidious is about as close to Star Wars' version of a devil as you can get. He has such contempt for everyone but himself. 
> 
> Basically, this chapter is not from a nice point of view.

Supreme Chancellor's Private Chambers  
Coruscant  
1 month later

Sheev finds it amusing how innocent the boy looks asleep, or as in this case unconscious. If he had stuck to his original plan this would be too early for him to reveal himself. Anakin is still far too firmly devoted to the jedi and his own ideals for him to be sure of the outcome. But he has chosen differently, and he wants to see the slave boy’s face when he realizes on what unsteady foundation his entire world has rested. 

Betrayal, Sheev has found can be savored like fine wine if only it is distilled correctly; and this particular flavor of treachery has been long in the making. Now that he has a back-up Skywalker he can as the Trade Federation is wont to say “hoard his credits and spend them”. And perhaps, there is still a chance that Anakin, whose most trusted men have captured him, whose kind mentor is a Lord of the Sith, with nothing to look forward to but a life imprisoned and clipped wings may have a change of heart himself. This will be Sidious’ last test, if the boy passes, he will have no need of the clone. If he fails, well a Lord of the Sith can always find amusing ways to deal with recalcitrant jedi prisoners. 

The clone is ready, a carefully curated collection of Skywalker’s memories, a heaping portion of his anger and instability and very little of the kindness or courage that tempers them, a missing hand and a scarred face. Palpatine is ready for the final act in this little drama. 

The boy comes awake warily, clearly his numerous experiences in Separatist prisons have made him cautious. Sheev can feel the moment he comes to full awareness, the careful touch gauging the effectiveness of the binders, the slight tensing in his shoulders when he finds them tamper-proof and then hard-won calm that leaves his normally expressive face emotionless and aloof. Everything, in fact that Sheev knows Anakin is not. 

There is a moment after the blue eyes blink open that he thinks that he is saved after all. Sheev cannot wait to tear down that last flicker of hope as Anakin tries to get his unsteady legs to behave. He lets down the outer layer of his defenses and watches amused as the slithering Dark floods into the room. The boy watches horrified as his friend’s eyes flare yellow but he still seems unwilling to believe the truth.

“Chancellor Palpatine,” he stutters, “I think the Separatists have found some method of mind control, I remember my men attacking me…and then everything is a blank. I think they are trying to turn us to the Darkside, you must not let them control you!”

Sheev allows himself an amused and admittedly sinister cackle (there are after all perks of being a villain). Anakin’s face contorts as though he cannot decide whether to give into a useless fit of rage or simply pass out and hope he wakes to a better reality. 

“I would prefer to be called Lord Sidious,” Sheev says regally. 

Something deliciously close to despair runs through Anakin’s eyes before he pulls himself together with obvious effort, (Sheev wonders if the Jedi have any idea how helpful they have been in running the boy ragged with the war and he makes a mental note to thank the Council before he has them slaughtered). 

“This happened to my padawan once,” he mutters, “It’s not your fault, someone is trying to force you into the Darkside, but you are not force-sensitive…this makes no sense.” And he shakes his head as though that will do away with the cobwebs that accumulated blunt force trauma and electrocution have obviously fostered. The boy may be married to Amidala but she has singularly failed to make him any more articulate in the ensuing years. Sheev wonders how she puts up with it, unless she prefers dumb adoration and the blind power that it puts in her hands. 

An outraged cry of “Sidious!” brings Sheev back from his speculations. The true situation has finally sunk in if the righteous indignation that is pouring off the boy is any indication. 

“You traitorous bastard! You engineered all of it didn’t you? The war, the creation of the clones, you enslaved them and now you are controlling them aren’t you? You’re a monster!” Anakin snarls.

“If you refuse to call me Lord Sidious, “master” will do just as well young one.” He allows himself a smile at the incandescent fury swirling around his possible apprentice, “And I hardly think that you can claim the moral high ground, Anakin. Didn’t you once tell me how you slaughtered an entire village in revenge? I at least have never claimed to be free of attachment while secretly married or allowed my padawan to be nearly executed.”

The fury around Anakin does not abate but Sheev can see shame coloring the boy’s cheeks and a glint of fear in his eyes.

“You set her up didn’t you? You and that sithspit minion of yours?” 

Sheev waves two of his personal droids forward and they catch the boy’s fettered hands before he can throw himself forward, as though such an attack has the slightest chance of success. He could do with a lesson certainly, so Sheev checks that his offices are still shielded from the jedi and lets a fraction of his true power pour into his hands until he has enough lightning to teach the boy to curb his insolent tongue. 

Anakin writhes under the electricity, his cybernetic arm sparking and juddering uselessly, but there is still a defiant gleam in his eyes when Sheev relents. Perhaps Dooku in his typically inept way has given the boy to much resistance to electrocution. 

“What do you want with me anyways?” Anakin asks once he can speak again, his anger tamped down to smoldering coals. “Why bother to tell me anything? The moment I get away, I will bring your whole scheme down around your ears.”

“I really think you won’t Anakin,” Sheev says laughing, “You are going to join me and together we will bring the Republic down around the jedi.”

“I will never join you,” snarls Anakin, “I don’t care what you do to me. You might as well kill me at once, because I will tear down whatever you build, stone by stone, with my bare hands if I must.”

“With what hands?” Sheev asks, and with a flick of his own hand the droid on the right rips the cybernetic attachment off the boy’s arm. It dangles uselessly from the fetters on Anakin’s remaining hand. Sheev takes a moment to enjoy the sight of him swaying helplessly in the droids’ grasp before he brings the clone into view. The mechanical hand will complete the clone’s resemblance to his originator.

“If that is all you have to say to my generous offer than I am sure I can find suitable accommodations for you until I have time to deal with your insolence. But Anakin Skywalker will stand by my side, he will kill for me and he will call me his master.”

Anakin is staring at his mirror image in disbelief, speechless for once. 

“Anakin here has proved far more reasonable than you in this matter, and if you are thinking of escape or rescue, I wouldn’t get my hopes up. Do you really think that anyone will be interested in helping the man who will lead the 501st to sack the Jedi Temple? That Obi-Wan will try to save his failed student once he sees him cutting down children and infants?”

“This is your last chance Anakin, you will be judged guilty for everything that your brother does. Would you rather be free and at least cursed for your own actions, or will you still refuse to join me and remain my prisoner with no hope of accomplishing anything except your own continued misery?”

To Sheev’s surprise, Anakin stumbles to his feet, however close he is to passing out from the pain of his tattered arm.

“I have led good men in a pointless war, I have killed unjustly and lied and deceived my friends, I have failed my padawan as a teacher and my master as a student, I have been a terrible jedi. I can see clearly now, you have always been there for me, encouraging my worst instincts and making little of my mistakes.”

Sidious smiled.

“But this choice I make freely, whether anyone will ever know of it or not. They may all think what they like of me, but I will not join you. I would rather that Ashoka and Obi-Wan think me a traitor and jedi-killer than actually be one. I will pay my penance Sidious, but your time will come and whether by my hand or another the Sith will crumble into nothing and be forgotten. And I will never call you my master.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nota Bene on stylistic writing choices: I use Jedi to refer to proper titles, such as the Jedi Temple or Jedi Knight so-an-so. I use jedi the same way we use lawyer or monk if it's referring to the profession/vocation. 
> 
> Characterization:  
> Sheev is still transitioning to think of himself as Sidious, he has spent so much time deceiving everyone around him that he can't quite turn it off even in his head. So at this point, he is Sidious when he is creeping around in a shadowy cape and Sheev when he is still clinging to his rational facade (even if he is being rationally evil). He also sees everyone else from his twisted reality, for instance, he wants Anakin's devotion and power so he can't imagine Padme wanting him for simply being Anakin, Sheev cannot stand Anakin as Anakin so why would anyone else?
> 
> Anakin is a mess in this story, he has been betrayed by his men (even if he thinks something else is going on, he is then betrayed by his friend and finally by himself, in the shape of a living breathing copy. So being Anakin he switches between rage and enforced calm, from yelling to actual coherence in the last paragraph as he starts to reject all the nasty little suggestions and excuses his friend Sheev always gave him.  
> Of course he is also not a trustworthy narrator because he's a drama queen and fond of absolutes, he's either ruthlessly good or ruthlessly bad, making excuses for himself or believing he is the worst person ever...


	4. In which there is very little hope for a long time...and Anakin is characteristically stubborn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lots of things go wrong, Anakin Skywalker does some soul-searching and Sidious has the metaphorical high ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the chapter that I had no intention of writing...but demanded to be written anyway. 
> 
> It's depressing and I'm not completely satisfied with the result...but at least Anakin isn't killing children so that's something.

Somewhere on Coruscant  
Indeterminate Location  
Indeterminate Time

Anakin tries. He really does, but Obi-Wan is either too far away or the cuffs and the Dark are too strong. The Dark hangs around wherever the chancellor is keeping him in heavy smothering curtains until Anakin thinks he might drown in it before Palpa…Sidious is done with him.

It would probably be better than whatever the Sith has planned.

Clearly, whatever he thought he knew of the slimy, Hutt-forsaken traitor has all been a lie. But one thing Anakin has discovered about the true nature of his erstwhile mentor…he does not like being told no. Trapped, betrayed and forsaken, with less to his name than he had as a child, even his identity stolen from him, Anakin has found one thing to cling to.

Sidious can fetter his power, take his honor, his reputation, his wife and his name but unless Anakin lets him he cannot take his soul. And because that is the last thing that he can call his own and because Anakin is nothing if not perversely stubborn he takes considerable pleasure in flaunting this last bit of control in Sidious’ face.

Naturally, Sidious does not appreciate it. His favorite way of showing his displeasure seems to be lightning but Anakin has spent most of his life dodging in and out of perilous circumstances and anyways after the war, he is an old hat at electrocution. In fact, he is beginning to wonder if Sidious (considering the Hutt-spawn was probably telling Dooku what to do) had issued some sort of electrocute-Anakin-Skywalker-at-every-available-opportunity order to the CIS troops. It would explain why it seemed to happen so often…

At least that is what he tells himself whenever he finds himself gasping on the floor, smoke curling lazily around him, his hand twitching from the aftershocks. Perhaps he should not be so deliberately taunting in his interactions with the Sith but Sidious is arrogant and self-absorbed in the very worst way and he persists in referring to everyone Anakin cares for and Anakin himself as though they are merely pawns or puppets. _Things_ , whose only object is to provide Sidious with amusement or control.

And here is the Dark, with no day or night, and no knowledge of the outside world, suffocating in smothering webs of Sidious’ will it would be so easy to give up. The lightning hurts, but it is also oddly illuminating, cutting through Sidious’ lies and reminding Anakin that he is a prisoner, that Sidious used him and is still using him and that he wants nothing to do with the man.

It is not a good state of mind, but it is also weirdly the only thing keeping him semi-sane, and it’s not like Anakin had illusions that he was mentally healthy _before_ this fiasco. He has never been a good jedi, he loves like the slave that he was; deeply and fiercely. He fears and he hates, when he should be aloof and detached, right wrongs and champion justice for principles’ sake.

But all Anakin has ever seen are _people_. Especially people who have been hurt. He wonders briefly if Ahsoka is alright and the thought that his bright brave young (ex)padawan is far, far away from Coruscant suddenly makes the fact that she left a minor annoyance.

He’s never really had the inclination to meditate before but suddenly with all this useless time on his hands…(ha Obi-Wan, do you get the joke).

(Never mind, Obi-Wan isn’t here…maybe he is losing his mind).

Meditation is strangely easy now, of course, he isn’t doing it properly with the cuffs suppressing his connection to the Force. It’s quiet and peaceful, without the external pressure of billions of minds colliding with his own. He can actually hear his own thoughts when he meditates. Strange.

Sidious has been stopping by more often, he thinks. If he had to guess, it has been months since Rex dragged him here. Loyal Rex, who would have never dragged Anakin here of his own free will, and suddenly Anakin wonders what happened to his men. How selfish that he hasn’t spared much thought for them until now, and all the while they have been out there fighting without him.

Sidious found a way to control them.

There is nothing

he can

do.

He feels it when the ship collides with something above him. Surely even a Sithlord has no reason to crash a ship into Coruscant, what is Sidious playing at now?

And then everything happens so very fast. Even with the binders, he can feel the death of the Jedi. It’s like watching a galaxy of lights blink out of existence.

It feels like everything that Anakin has ever feared or kept bottled up inside, deathanguishsufferingfear…so much fear and the revolting pleasure of Sidious gloating somewhere above him.

(Shouldn’t the cuffs prevent him from feeling all this?)

But more importantly…

He’s supposed to stop this. All that time spent refusing to believe in destiny, and now his friends are dead and it’s his fault.

He had been warned on Mortis. Why hadn’t he listened? Had he forgotten?

_I will do such terrible things_

He is doing terrible things, and yet he is stuck here doing nothing. Completely useless.

When Sidious comes again he is very angry. Something has gone wrong in his plans. Anakin doesn’t even care what has gone wrong _(maybe Obi-Wan or Ahsoka escaped)_ as long as it happened.

_Is it too much…too selfish to hope that they both did?_

He smiles for the first time in months? Which is just as well, because he won’t smile for a long time after this. Sidious barely acknowledges him before the lightning comes.

When Anakin finally claws his way back to unwelcome awareness, it feels like he has been fried from the inside out. Sidious is still there, with a look of enjoyment in his evil yellow eyes. Then very deliberately and without any explanation at all he ignites his lightsaber and removes Anakin’s legs. Slowly.

And as if Anakin wasn’t already in enough pain and half passed-out again, he says with warped delight.

“Amidala is dead.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry...  
> It gets better. 
> 
> *these are the comments you are looking to add to...  
> ~these are the comments you are looking to add to...


	5. In which rumors of my death…

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ahsoka goes to a funeral and finds friends in high (and hidden) places.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The more I watch Clone Wars the sadder this gets. I really need to take a break and write fluff.

Galactic Empire  
Several months after the Fall of the Republic  
Aldera, Alderaan

Padme Amidala, former Queen of Naboo, former Senator of Naboo and widow of Anakin Skywalker is not by any stretch of the imagination, a push-over. She had fought off the trade-federation as a teenager, she had snatched victory from defeat in many Senate votes and she could shaak-eye a target at half a klick.

All of which did nothing at all to help the fact that her loving, devoted husband had gone insane, engaged in a murderous rampage and apparently pledged his loyalty to her back-stabbing mentor. And if that was not enough, instead of trying to figure out what sort of mind-control or evil sorcery had brought about this change, said husband’s best friend had chosen to deal with this problem by _cutting off the rest of his limbs and leaving him to burn alive._

Padme had genuinely liked Obi-Wan although she privately suspected that the feeling was not entirely mutual. She also liked her husband in one piece, with the proper number of limbs and not dead. She liked being a mother, and now Sidious, said husband and the Jedi have together managed to widow her and leave her a single mother on the run from a corrupt empire.

Perhaps their secret marriage had ruined them, but looking back Padme decides that she would change nothing. They had been happy and without Anakin she would not have Luke or Leia. She just wishes she had seen whatever had gone wrong before it came to this.

There was no time to look back and regret, however, much she wishes to indulge. Obi-Wan had assured her that Anakin was dead. Now was the time to disappear, find help for the twins and _tear down Palpatine’s empire bloody stone by bloody stone._

And since Obi-Wan doesn’t seem inclined to help, she is going to have to look elsewhere for allies. If nothing else she would at least see the man who threatened her children and ruined her husband pay for those crimes.

She and Anakin had been different in many ways, not the least in that he had been property once and she had been privileged but they had been stubborn in equal measure, they loved fiercely and when they swore vengeance, they meant it.

Padme’s children will grow up free, of the jedi, who would not love, the sith, who could only hate and the empire, which only enslaved and destroyed. And whatever Obi-Wan has said Padme knows that there was something off about her husband, initially she had chalked it up to the brutal sieges and their long separation but looking back now, she thinks that it was more. So, Luke and Leia will grow up proud of who their father had been without the taint of betrayal or coercion or whatever Sidious had used to destroy him.

She goes to Alderaan first, they have excellent medical facilities and she trusts Bail and Breha with her life and more importantly the lives of her family. She needs time, time to process what had happened and to recover from her pregnancy and to begin planning. If Sidious thinks he is going to sit comfortably on his throne, he has no idea what kind of enemy he made when he stole her husband, her life and the peace she had given up so much for.

* * *

Padme and Bail are deep in conversation regarding methods of legitimizing a resistance movement when she hears them. She hasn’t seen Ahsoka since her abrupt departure but delighted as she is to hear the girl, it is the man she is speaking with that worries her. Captain Rex had been her husband’s most trusted officer, but in this dark new galaxy, where Anakin himself had proved untrustworthy (or bugged as Artoo prefers to phrase it) the confidence she had in any clone has wavered. They had after all without explanation assaulted their generals and sacked the Temple.

She wonders suddenly if what had happened to Anakin had also happened to the clones? Perhaps, there is a correlation. Besides nothing is going to keep her from checking up on Ahsoka, quite apart from her own fondness of the girl she is the last reminder other than her children of the man her husband had been.

She waits until she hears Captain Rex leaving and excuses herself from her meeting only to be knocked nearly flat by the togruta.

“Padme?”

“Ahsoka,” she says smiling, “I am very happy to see that you escaped.”

Ahsoka seems stunned by the fact that Padme is standing in front of her.

“I thought you died,” she says in disbelief, “I went to your funeral, I thought everyone was dead except Rex and I.” Ahsoka has grown since Padme last saw her, she is tall and slender where she had once been spindly. It reminds Padme of Anakin when he had finally stopped shooting up like a weed and come into his full height.

“Is..is Anakin, do you know what happened to him? Did he make it out like you?”

Padme shakes her head, sorry to dispel the hope in the girl’s eyes. She is sorrier still that she owes her the whole story. Perhaps Ahsoka will have some insight into the more esoteric sides of the matter. She feels that Ahsoka is likely to be more open to understanding whatever happened than Obi-Wan, Yoda and their unhelpful “once fallen to the darkness no coming back there is” advice.

Ahsoka is obviously not expecting anything worse than the news that Anakin is dead and she is shaking her head and trying valiantly not to cry by the time Padme’s story is done.

“It doesn’t make sense,” she says mournfully, “Anakin would never hurt the younglings, not unless Sidious had him in some kind of trance maybe? The clones had slave chips in their heads, they couldn’t say no to the command to kill the jedi.”

“That is disgusting,” says Padme, “It made no sense that these men who had been loyal would turn so suddenly, I already knew that Sidious was evil but that is even worse than I thought. Do you think he could have done something similar to Anakin?”

“Maybe” Ahsoka shakes her head, “We got Rex’s out before he could hurt me, I don’t know how it would work on a jedi, let alone one as powerful as Skyguy.”

“He’s known Palpatine since he was a child,” Padme points out, “He could have done something years ago, if he _was_ controlled do you think he could see what…what was happening?”

This time Ahsoka doesn’t bothering trying to disguise her tears and after a moment Padme realizes that she has not cried once since everything happened. It feels good to simply mourn.

“I hope not,” Ahsoka sobs, “I’m sure he would have rather died than do whatever Sidious commanded or fight Master Kenobi. I don’t understand how he could have hurt him so badly. He didn’t like admitting it, but he loved Anakin, I know he thought of him as a brother.”

“I don’t understand either, I think I could forgive him for killing my husband, even if our theory is correct and he was being controlled by Sidious. I agree with you, Anakin would rather die than be allowed to continue to hurt people. But Obi-Wan told me that he didn’t kill him, he just left him there to burn.”

Padme shivers.

“Maybe Sidious did something to him too?” suggests Ahsoka uncertainly, “I don’t know if I can forgive that either. Even if Anakin really did go crazy, I would be absolutely furious at him; I don’t know if I could forgive him for willfully destroying the jedi like that, but I wouldn’t want him tortured to death.”

“Is there a way we can turn off the chips in the other clones?” Padme asks turning the conversation away from the unhappy fate of her husband.

“Maybe,” Ahsoka says thoughtfully, “Rex kept his in case we needed to study it, maybe we can find some sort of command that will turn them off all at once. It would be pretty hard to do that many surgeries without the clones or Sidious knowing.”

She stands, and once again Padme wonders at how much she has grown since they first met.

“Can I tell Rex about Anakin?” Ahsoka asks, “I think he should know, maybe he remembers something from before Anakin came back to Coruscant. That’s when he started acting strange right?”

The palace hallways are long and bright and for moment Ahsoka imagines that she is back in the Temple on Coruscant and she can hear Anakin’s voice faintly calling her name. But it is a dream, a memory of a better time and Anakin is dead and gone with the rest of the jedi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, Sidious is a lying, liar who lies. 
> 
> As far as the characterizations, especially Obi-Wan's, the pov are from the characters who obviously don't have the whole story. Though frankly I do think that Obi-Wan was pretty close to going darkside himself and needlessly cruel in the way that he left canon Anakin to die. 
> 
> On the other hand Anakin has been far more open with both Padme and Ahsoka than with Obi-Wan so they are looking at the situation from an entirely different perspective. Padme in particular is in a position to note that Anakin has been acting extra weird (even for him) lately. 
> 
> Also Ahsoka is totally not imagining Anakin's voice...


	6. Interlude: The Brothers Skywalker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Anakin reflects and makes an unlikely ally? fellow prisoner? jailer?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, real life has been interesting and the lease on my apartment got cancelled so I'm mostly focused on finding someplace to live. 
> 
> But here at long last is not the long awaited Obi-Wan chapter but an interlude at least. Obi-Wan is next.

Time is a strange concept now. There is very little to distinguish days from months and even less to distinguish months from months. There is no day or night wherever Sidious has stashed him and he can only make slight guesses based on how often Sidious visits. Or deigns to provide him with food, it’s just as well he supposes that he is good surviving.

Survival is another odd thing down here. Probably, he shouldn’t want to survive at all, there is no end in sight and he seems to provide limitless amusement for Sidious. Possibly he is rock-headed and too stubborn to let Sidious see him give up, and he does still have a purpose even if he is losing hope. Padmé is dead, the jedi are dead, Rex and his men are probably dead but that also means that Anakin can’t give up. He’s tried so long to escape destiny and now that is all that he has left. Sidious has taken away all the people that he is loyal to and left him only principles.

He needs to stay alive so that he can stop Vader and the Emperor and find peace. Anakin thinks that it has probably been years since he was dragged here when things start to change. Sidious’ visits become erratic and despite his increasing cruelty Anakin can barely muster his old defiance. It’s not that he’s given up, he’s just learnt to keep his insolence quiet. He no longer burns with anger and a desire for vengeance, but he keeps them safe and hidden too deep in his soul for Sidious to feel.

He thinks that Sidious’ is disappointed, he never fails to relate stories of some new atrocity committed by his unhinged doppelganger or of some jedi newly caught and killed. He still laughs when Anakin stumbles back, shaking on the rudimentary cybernetics that have replaced the legs that Sidious took. He had finally found out the reason for that long after the fact. Obi-Wan had done the same to Vader and Sidious was just petty enough to blame Anakin for his diminished apprentice. 

Or possibly he still thinks that Obi-Wan is alive and he wants Anakin’s old master to see the fruits of his work someday. Honestly, Anakin can definitely imagine Sidious stuffing him into Vader’s armor and leaving him for some disgruntled jedi or Obi-Wan himself to find. It’s a possibility that give him nightmares. Obi-Wan (if it was Obi-Wan) would do his duty and kill the supposed Sith but he wouldn’t like it, and when (if) he ever found out that it hadn’t been Vader after all it would probably destroy him. And Anakin can imagine few things more terrible than that, he shivers remembering the trick that the Council had played on him all those years? ago when he had almost fallen into that abyss.

He’s had a very narrow escape all things considered. If Palpatine had waited a while longer or threatened someone other than Anakin himself, he might be regretting his life even more right now.

Which brings him to Vader.

Vader is well…scary. And not just because he is a gigantic Sithlord with anger problems and the ability to choke you from across the room. Anakin has anger problems and he has force-choked people before, that doesn’t scare him.

The fact that Vader is a living, breathing reflection of his darkest self does.

Once upon a time Anakin was an optimist, he tried to think the best of most people and help where he could. He’d quickly learned that the jedi were far from the perfect knights that he had dreamed of, that even when you do manage to achieve your dreams the real fight is keeping them. That your whole world can collapse in a matter of days.

Anakin has been more of a realist for years now, Vader though is in outright pessimist.

He believes the worst of _everything_ and everyone, Obi-Wan, the Jedi, the Republic, Sidious, _himself_. And Anakin can to his shame understand. Can even sympathize just a little once he gets past the burning anger and the horror of what his doppelgänger has done and continues to do.

Because he has seen it before in himself. He knows just how well Sidious can twist words and thoughts until they are daggers posed to strike at your weakest moments. He knows (after months on months of reflection and a couple of very odd conversations) that Vader didn’t even have the morals that Shmi had given Anakin to start with. And he knows just how close he came to dropping off into the abyss that Vader is drowning in.

And much as Sidious enjoys using Vader to torment Anakin, Anakin has seen him use Anakin himself to torment Vader. He mocks him for losing his duel to Obi-Wan, he belittles him for being less powerful than Anakin would have been, he enjoys making him kneel where Anakin can see it.

Vader is a slave perhaps even more than Anakin once was. Anakin at least had his mind and soul intact, Vader doesn’t even have that. Though sometimes, for an odd moment Anakin can see just a flash of real personality come through. The stolen questions he asks his rival, the one time he had helped with burnt out servos in Anakin’s left knee.

Perhaps, there is hope even for him.

Sidious catches them once, before the end. It hadn’t even been anything foolhardy, Vader had merely been gentle pulling him down from the chains that Sidious had left him in and well, when Sidious was done parts of Vader’s armor had melted and Anakin had exactly one working limb.

“Why when we have so much power, must we always be at his mercy?” Vader asks haltingly through his hissing respirator.

“I don’t know,” Anakin replies sadly looking down at the wide metal bands on his wrists that cut him off that power, that relentless energy under his skin.

“We were born slaves and we will die slaves.” Vader says philosophically and Anakin snaps.

“No! We’re people,” he says urgently, “You’re a person and you’re a Skywalker and we’ll both be free of him someday.”

Vader’s mask tips slightly to the side.

“When we’re dead…” he says hopefully, before his respirator sputters out. And Anakin can’t watch him suffocate before his eyes, so he stays silent and puts his mind (and one working hand) to work repairing the burnt-out circuits before Vader runs out of air. When Vader limps away it feels like a goodbye.

Sidious comes back for him hours later, smiling horribly as he has his guards blindfold and drag him away. When he wakes up surrounded by sand and the smell of the desert and of Hutts he realizes that Sidious must have been listening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh, crumbs. I just realized that I'm going to have to do a chapter from Vader's pov. That's going to be interesting.


	7. In which some things come full circle...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben Kenobi dreams of the past and the future and watches Luke grow up while ignoring a couple of warnings the Force sends him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Obi-Wan kind of took over and this was really clunky as one chapter so it has been split and there will be an Obi-Wan Part II shortly.
> 
> Just to be clear this is an Obi-Wan who has been marinating in sadness and the desert. His opinion of himself, of Anakin and of Padme should absolutely be taken with a grain of salt. He is also very much in denial about what actually went wrong with "Anakin" and the Jedi and Sidious. 
> 
> I do imagine that a canon desert-ben would have had many of the same thoughts especially in the early years. The only difference here is that he knows Padme is alive.

Jundland Wastes  
Tatooine  
5 Years after the Fall of the Republic

Ben has tried to stay out of…well anything really. He had been near the center of so many galactic events and turning points and look how that had turned out… What he wanted, he tried to convince himself was peace, quiet and serenity. He had always acted as the though the near continual chaos and adventure he had lived with was Anakin’s fault. That he had merely been dragged along in the riptide of Anakin (and then Ahsoka’s) adventures.

Dwelling alone on this terrible planet surrounded by endless miles of sand and sky made it hard to cling to any of his denials. He had enjoyed serenity as much as the next jedi but given the itch under his skin, the occasional flash of adrenaline when the kryats called, the thrill of expectation when he half-turns to quip about the danger to a ghost of what-was, he was not nearly as content with a quiet life as he had thought he would be.

How terrible to consider that the best times of his life had been in the thick of a war, guarded by a reckless girl and her equally wild master. That he had felt safer there, in the midst of men who betrayed him than he did now, in the empty heart of the desert.

Or perhaps that was the problem, there was so much time to think here in the quiet, the occasional and surreptitious visits to see Luke doing nothing to quench the sting of failure and betrayal. If anything, they made it worse. Here was the free, well-feed, fearless child of the boy whose fear had destroyed them all. Or lust for power, or something that Ben still didn’t know of, he had never asked him what it was that made him turn. He’d assumed it was power, but than he had made a lot of assumptions…

Mustafar lives on his memories, Padmé collapsing, the sheer hate pouring off his once-friend, the long duel and terrible agony in the yellow eyes of the Sith as he drowned in fire. Padmé had been so angry with him afterwards when he tried to explain. Ben still couldn’t fathom that the smart and duty-bound senator that he had known could have thrown so much of herself away in Anakin. That they had sworn a vow so contrary to Anakin’s manifest destiny. That they had not seen the inevitable consequences of indulging in their own selfishness.

Surely, they hadn’t thought that the Order would allow him to remain while breaking such a fundamental principle? He doesn’t think that he would have turned them in, but the children would have given them away if the jedi had not been slaughtered first. Had that been why Anakin turned? Surely, even deranged and evil as Anakin had become, he had not wiped out the jedi to keep his secret….

Anakin had been acting strangely for a while, he had been alternately moody and excited, angry at the Council but still willing to obey. Had it all been a ploy? When had he and Palpatine started working together…how long had his ex-padawan known that the Chancellor was a Sith? They had always been inappropriately close, even as a child Anakin had spent far too much time with the man, bolstering the pride that Ben had tried to suppress.

Shivering in the heat he thought of all the times that the Chancellor had intervened in Anakin’s missions, had pulled them out of situations that turned deadly or sent them on errands Anakin had miraculously salvaged at the last minute. Everything suddenly felt suspect, so many campaigns had gone sour for no reason, had Anakin ever even fought for the Republic? Or had his own Empire always been on the horizon? But he had loved Ahsoka…Ben was sure of that. Selfish love for sure, unfitting in a jedi, but still love and Sith didn’t love. He had been protective of his men too, their loyalty had lain with him and not with the Jedi as their disastrous sacking of the Temple had testified. And he had poured sweat, blood and sometimes tears into the war. Surely, a Sith would not purposefully injure themselves as many times as Anakin had if it could have been prevented…perhaps, some of it had been real.

Ben certainly couldn’t see Palpatine puttering about with droids or sacrificing an arm simply for the sake of victory. It felt oddly better, Anakin had fallen and betrayed them all but he had been good once. Ben clung to that like a life-line. The boy that he had loved, regardless of the Code had not always been Palpatine’s puppet, he had not loved a shadow. And now he would ensure that Luke could fulfill his father’s unfinished destiny, that the Sith would not have him too.

He hoped that the Organas knew what they were doing back on Alderaan, in the belly of the imperial beast. It had been at least partly Bail’s influence that had finally convinced Padmé that she couldn’t run a rebellion and raise two small children. She had absolutely refused to listen for the first few years, clinging to her children and the memory of her husband in a way that finally convinced Ben that she had been quite as attached to his failed student as he had been to her.

Anakin might not have succeeded in convincing her to rule the galaxy with him but there was a good possibility that she’ll succeed in destroying the current Emperor for his part in the death of Anakin Skywalker and the downfall of the Republic. Occasionally, Ben can see glimpses of the same anger directed towards himself. Given her inability to understand the workings of the Force, Ben didn’t entirely blame her. She was still laboring under the idea that Anakin had somehow been coerced or controlled. She had not seen the tarnished gold of the Sith staring out from his brother’s eyes.

And she had been very upset about the manner of his death. She had not understood that nothing of Anakin had been left, that he had left Vader to burn not her husband. It was a miracle that she had consented to let him visit Luke at all, she had made him promise to not teach the boy anything of the jedi, though she had allowed stories about the boy’s father once he was old enough to understand the need for secrecy.

Padmé herself visited as often as she could, without seeming suspicious. Though Ben had heard talk in Anchorhead that Owen might be having an affair with an off-worlder. At least no one seemed to think that the mysterious lady might be a dead ex-senator, a fugitive, or a rebel. So, all was well, as long as those rumors didn’t reach the ears of the Lars themselves.

Luke would be five this year and Ben was already finding the obviously similarities to his father heartbreaking. He had Anakin’s blue eyes and fair hair and Padmé’s nose and temperament, the one holo that he had seen had shown the sister to have gotten the nose and possibly the temper (judging by the adorable scowl she had been wearing) from her father instead. Luke was everything Anakin could have been, even-tempered, without the scars and overwhelming emotions that Anakin had wrapped about himself like a cloak.

He missed his mother and his sister, but he was not desperate or angry or broken the way Anakin had been even as a child. He was clever, interested in machines but not needy or attention-seeking. It was both refreshing and saddening, to see what Anakin could have been if the Order had found him sooner or he had not been caught up in his past. Ben could feel it in his bones that he was their last hope, especially if what he suspected was true and Anakin had bequeathed his temper, his determination, and his overwhelming emotions to his daughter. Luke would make a good jedi and someday soon, he was going to have to bypass Padmé and ensure that the boy was taught. That he understood the power he carried so unconsciously.

* * *

Seven Years after the Fall of the Republic

Possibly Ben had been too hasty in some of his assumptions regarding the Luke’s temperament. He was quite as reckless as his father; Ben had caught him off racing at ridiculous speeds several times. He was also strangely attached to droids, as Anakin had been once. Ben tried not to think of Anakin’s attachment to droids, considering the awful news he had received. Padmé had clearly been keeping it from him but Vader had not died on Mustafar but had risen like an unholy phoenix of metal and blood.

Luke also appeared to have developed an obsession with freeing slaves not unlike the one that his father had once harbored. While Ben had no objections to this on principle, he feared the results. Anakin’s problems with slavery had made him angry and dangerous, and had upset more than one mission with his single-minded desire to wipe out slavery at inopportune times. Luke’s potential as a jedi would be severely limited if he chose to throw his energy into a futile crusade.

Hopefully, it would be a passing interest. Given the Lars’ protectiveness regarding their nephew he still didn’t understand how the boy even came in contact with slavery. Or least with individual slaves, the last time he had visited Luke had seemed unduly fascinated with some poor soul owned by a spice merchant. Luke had chattered on and on about Set and how he had taught Luke new tricks for fixing his speeder.

The last thing that Luke needed was to form a strong attachment to a slave, especially one that he saw as a father-figure, in the absence of his _real_ father who is from what Ben can tell more interested in killing people and his own personal glory.

“But he’s lonely, I can feel it.” Luke had said, “He told me how his wife died, and he was captured and enslaved.”

“He wasn’t born a slave?” Ben had asked.

“Oh, he was. That’s what is so sad,” Luke had insisted, his young eyes far too old, “He was freed and he fought in a war but his family was killed and one of his friends betrayed him and sold him to Jabba and then Jabba sold him to Harlaj.”

It’s hard looking into the boy’s blue eyes, so earnest and innocent and trying not to compare them to another boy’s eyes, to hear this story and not think of Anakin who had been freed himself only to fall into the darkness.

“How did you meet…Set?” Ben asks carefully, he hates to think of anyone in servitude but not all slaves are trustworthy, and some are too broken to resist helping their masters. This strange friendship might be innocent, but Set might also be trying to manipulate Luke or take advantage of his kindness. Has Padmé heard of this?

“Aunt Bee took me to Mos Eisley," Luke tells him blushing, “I got…sort of lost in the crowd and I couldn’t find her.” The boy bites his lips nervously.

“There was girl, these people were hurting her and I couldn’t…she was slave and someone said they should just leave her out in the desert. How can anyone do that?”

Anakin had never been this innocent Ben thinks, but he’d have probably tried to intervene. Predictably, the Skywalker in front of him continues.

“I yelled at them to stop,” Luke admits an odd combination of shame and defiance on his face, “They were bad, I could feel it and someone shoved me over. I thought they were going hit me instead.”

“How long ago did this happen?” Ben asks worried, hopefully Luke’s interference will not have any long term consequences.

“A while ago,” Luke says vaguely, “I didn’t understand everything that was happening at first. Set helped me understand. He stopped them for hurting me.” His face scrunches up, “I couldn’t understand everything he said, it was mostly Huttese, but it was something about a debt and maybe a race?”

Tatooine and its illegal races, Ben snorts, another terrible habit Anakin had picked up. This Set is worrying him, most slaves don’t bring attention to themselves in this way for strangers.

“He was going to help me find Aunt Bee but this nasty Nikto starting yelling at him and then Harlaj, that’s the spice merchant came and he had to leave. But I found him the next time we went to Mos Eisley. He helped me make a ship.”

And Luke pulls out a stubby piece of hunk of metal, carefully pieced together to suggest a starfighter. It’s surprising well done and the streaks of yellow on the wings threaten Ben’s composure.

“Your aunt was alright with this?” he asks, Luke looks down and Ben wonders if it will do any good to inform Padmé of this situation…she could probably stop this, but considering she had married an ex-slave she might not appreciate the danger. In fact, the more Ben heard of her activities within the Rebellion the more he realized why Anakin had married her. They were both reckless and vengeful, Padmé had just hid her true nature better.

He doesn’t see Luke for a long while after that…but the conversation sticks in his head oddly and he dreams strange dreams. Sand and the blazing sun, and a pair of hands, one tanned and other scratched metal bound together by chains with cruel symbols etched into them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Padme and Obi-Wan have some issues in this fic. She is convinced that Anakin was possibly chipped, he is convinced that he is irredeemable (and possibly also that she seduced his innocent apprentice into a disastrous marriage.) So yeah, she doesn't want him near Vader until she has a crack at him. 
> 
> Names are important, just a little hint.


End file.
